Wednesday, June 13, 2012

JPMorgan is Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson's second-largest contributor over the last two-plus decades, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyzes campaign giving from companies' employees and their political action committees since 1989. The same is true for the committee's top Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, and its second-ranking Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed. (link below)

I have been arguing since way before it has become vogue in the media that the economy is a lot weaker than the Fed/Obama people would have us believe. Especially when measured on a real, inflation-adjusted basis. A big part of the GDP equation is retail sales/consumerism. In fact, during the past decade, debt-fueled consumption has been 70% of the GDP in this country. Pathetic if you ask me.

Retail sales for May were reported today and they showed a decline vs. April. More troubling, but consistent with the "report positive news then revise it downward the following month when no one is paying attention" policy our Government, April retail sales were revised to down .2% from the originally reported gain of .1%. The credit-card fueled consumer bounce has died and another leg of the economy is broken: LINK See the pattern here: a decline on a decline, month to month.

The big news of the day, and that which is nicely deflecting attention from our tanking economy and the ongoing collapse in Europe, is Jamie Dimon's testimony in front of the Senate Banking Committee on JP Morgan's massive derivatives loss. For anyone who naively thinks that Jamie Dimon will be properly brought to justice, or that the Senate intends to take any action beyond publicly grilling the boozehound who runs JPM, you better read this: LINK

Like most Americans, if you are too lazy or complacent to read about the truth, here's the Cliff Notes to that article: JP Morgan owns the key players on the Senate Banking Committee (see the opening quote). Here's a nice chart from zerohedge which details the big money beneficiaries in the Senate: LINK

As you can see, and as I've been arguing for a long time, party affiliation makes no difference. It's irrelevant. "Show me the money" is what counts. For all you liberals/Democrats who idolize Chuck Schumer, please take note that he's by far the biggest ankle-grabber for the Too Big To Fail Banks.

Bottom line: democracy is dead and the big banks will continue to rape and pillage our system until it collapses. Those monetary donations are nothing more than the cost of doing business for Wall Street. If you ask me, the whores in Congress are selling out way too cheaply and anyone who thinks it makes a difference as to whether Romney or Obama is the next President is an idiot. Obama has received a record amount of whore money from Wall Street and he had the nerve to campaign on a populist, I'm for the people platform. Everyone forgot to nail him down on exactly who his "people" are.

Finally, I wanted to share a must-watch speech given in the European Parliament by Nigel Farage. Mr. Farage is one of the UK representatives on the EP, which is the parliamentary body of the EU. Mr. Farage is known (and hated by elitists) for his outspoken criticism of EU system policies which are being implemented in tragic failure to address systemic disaster in Europe - the same tragic policies and disasters we are experiencing in the U.S.

Please watch this video and wonder how awesome it would be if the U.S. Congress had someone who had the balls to speak up like this - of course, any Congressman who preached the Truth would never get elected:

What struck me during Nigel Farage's speech was not the speech itself, which is spot on, but the bemused insouciance of those around him, as if he were an idiot. Truly we are screwed, and not in a way which will please us.

Farage makes my argument (as well as yours). There IS a solution, AND ... all evidence points to it's gradual formation picking up traction.

G O L D !!

Gold will "bail out" the ECB (in essence preventing it from "going bust").Gold will extinguish ALL debt in the world, as so many times before.

I F and only if ... it is "priced" high enough.

The hyperinflation of currencies ... that is already well underway. It takes time for "price" to reflect this.The end of dollar reserve hegemony ... this has already happened. The long range impact gradually materializing across the western economies.Never again in our lifetimes will the debt of one nation be held as a reserve "store of value" by the world's economies.

GOLD will resume that function. Morgan will go down in flames with it's leveraged paper derivatives (of gold).-W

What alot people miss is all the Gold sitting on the European Central Bank's balance sheet. (It's located on LINE 1 on the ASSET side of the ECB's balance sheet for god sakes.) Whenever they (the EU) want, they can just revalue this gold, sell a little off and pay off all their debts. And presto, the EU is "recapitalized".

The politics of the ECB? It is as a "side show"? - Another 1998

Also, something else people don't notice. The UK is not part of the EU, monetarily. Most of the other nations in the EU adopted the Euro but the UK still has the pound. If the EU becomes the new world reserve currency, they (the Europeans) will control the world for the next 100+ years. Taking this power away from the Americans and their allies....which includes the U.K.

One more thing:

The European Central Bank is located in Frankfurt, Germany. You think thats a coincidence?!

The thing that bugs me Dave is this thing is coming off at the wheels but the question remains what will the people build after the fall? Without different leaders and mindsets the nations will build back the same defiled economic system we have now. I mean look at obummer, he is the sorrests scumbag we have seen in my generation and that's probably insulting scumbags. I liked Farage's speech but it's falling on deaf ears yet one day he will be able to say "I told you so." Oh great!

I have often wondered about this guy. Is he an elected official? How do they permit him to stay around? How does he get re-elected. Why hasn't someone taken him out behind the building yet? The only thing I can think of is he is completely powerless and they don't fear him.

Nigel may be a bar fly but he is very carefull about what he says. His backers are the Goldsmith family (cousins to the Rothschilds). Jimmy founded UKIP, and the money probably comes from the hedge funds. Don't forget there is really big money in breaking up the euro and a gadfly always pumping out the message serves a purpose.

Eric Arthur Blair aka George Orwell

"Hope" is not a valid investment strategy

Full Time Jobs Over Last 5 Years

Is Your Gold Missing?

Why Gold?

Gold is the world's oldest currency. You exchange your fiat currency (dollars, euros, yen, yuan) into gold as an insurance policy against catastrophic Central Bank and Government policies which serve to destroy the value of fiat currencies and destroy democracy.

Gold can ONLY be considered an investment to the extent that it remains significantly and historically undervalued in relation to the fiat currencies against which its value is measured. Otherwise it remains the world's oldest currency and is completely free from the counterparty risk associated with currency by Government fiat (i.e. fiat currencies rely on a Government's "full faith and credit.")

Epic Quote - "Jesse" Sent This To Me

"The world will soon wake up to the reality that everyone is broke and can collect nothing from the bankrupt, who are owed unlimited amounts by the insolvent, who are attempting to make late payments on a bank holiday in the wrong country, with an unacceptable currency, against defaulted collateral, of which nobody is sure who holds title." - Anonymous

The Basic Fundamental Problem

What's the solution?

“THERE IS NO MEANS OF AVOIDING THE FINAL COLLAPSE OF A BOOM BROUGHT ABOUT BY CREDIT EXPANSION. THE ALTERNATIVE IS ONLY WHETHER THE CRISIS SHOULD COME SOONER AS THE RESULT OF A VOLUNTARY ABANDONMENT OF FURTHER CREDIT EXPANSION OR LATER AS A FINAL AND TOTAL CATASTROPHE OF THE CURRENCY SYSTEM INVOLVED.”

Ludwig von Mises – Austrian Economist (1881- 1973)

Quote Of The Month Courtesy of "Jesse"

Unfortunately for Larry Summers, Ben Bernanke, and their friends at the BIS, they have not yet figured out how to print physical gold, silver, and other essential commodities, and the world is reaching the point where it might simply start ignoring the New York based markets with respect to essential commodities such as basic materials, oil, foodstuffs, and the like, as they become increasingly irrelevant, fraudulent, and Orwellian. And then where will the financial engineers be, except with no more excuses and no place to hide?

Great Quote From Jim Rogers On Govt CPI Reporting

JR: I mean, we have inflation now. If you go to the shop, whether it’s groceries, or education or insurance or health care, prices are going up for everything. The government lies about it in the US. Some countries lie, many countries don’t: Australia, China, India and Norway. Many countries don’t lie about it and acknowledge that we have inflation. Others lie about it, the UK and the US, but if you go shopping you know prices are up.

Q: Are you saying that the American Consumer Price Index (CPI) published by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics is a lie? JR: In my opinion, yes, of course it is. Have you looked at it? They’ve changed their accounting several times in the past few decades. When housing was 20% to 25% of the CPI and housing was going up, they didn’t count it, saying rents weren’t going up, and then when home prices started going down, they counted it. It’s the same with many things. It’s staggering some of the tortuous reasoning that the BLS has used over the past 25 or 30 years. When the price of gasoline goes up, they say it’s not really going up because it’s better gasoline, better quality, therefore you’re getting more for your money. I mean, it’s endless, the stuff that they say and for some reason people sit there, although more and more people are catching on, and accept what the government says.

Priceless Quote From Richard Russell

On Larry Summers: This doofus practically ruined Harvard when he headed it. I can't think of a worse choice to be chief economic advisor. I wouldn't trust Summers to manage a Starbucks franchise.

Quote of the Week

"The primary function of a Central Bank is to engage in the massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy elite. The Federal Reserve was set up to do this with the blessing and support of Congress." - Dave in Denver

If you refuse to believe the above, please read "The Creature From Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve" by G. Edward Griffin and then explain to me why the Senate voted down the Vitter Amendment and Congress refuses to pass a law requiring a full audit of the Fed, even though the Fed is using taxpayer-backed money to bailout Wall Street and Europe.

Quote of the Month

And very relevant in the context of yesterday's post about gold moving higher against all fiat currencies:

Just imagine what would happen if a mere ten percent of the money currently going into bonds were instead to go into gold. As in 1972, the real move has yet to begin.

- Murray Pollit, Pollit & Co.

A Picture Says It All...

www.moneyandmarkets.com

Golden ore samples produced by Eurasian Minerals

Undisclosed exploration site

The Next Reserve Currency?

1 oz. Chinese Panda

Guess who said this?

Rising prices of precious metals and other commodities are an indication of a very early stage of an endeavor to move away from paper currencies...What is fascinating is the extent to which gold still holds reign over the financial system as the ultimate source of payment.

-Alan Greenspan, 9 Sep 2009

THIS is what REAL money looks like

1 oz. Gold Eagles

Alan Greenspan said what?

“Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the ‘hidden’ confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.”

From "Gold and Economic Freedom" a 1966 Essay by Alan Greenspan

About Me

I spent many years working in various analytic jobs and trading on Wall Street. For nine of those years, I traded junk bonds for a large bank. I have an MBA from the University of Chicago, with a concentration in accounting and finance.
Currently I co-manage a precious metals and mining stock investment fund in Denver.
My goal is to help people understand and analyze what is really going on in our financial system and economy.